The UN world population dashboard stated that India now has 1428.6 million people while China’s population stands at 1425.7 million. This is for the first time that India has topped the United Nations‘ list of most populated countries, ever since the UN began collecting population data in 1950.
Asked for his reaction to the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing: “I want to tell you that population dividend does not depend on quantity but also quality”. The population is important and so is the talent, he said about China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States.
As the global economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. However, economists have been concerned about the prevalent inequalities in society. As the low-to-mid income generating population largely feels the heat, consumption is seeing a sharp slowdown, and household savings have slumped to a three-decade low, ET had reported earlier.
There are also concerns around poor female participation rate in the workforce and a lagging rural economy, in comparison to China.
China’s. Even as both countries are seeing workers migrate to megacities seeking better prospects, the majority of India’s people will remain in the hinterland, while the bulk of China will increasingly be urban by 2035, according to estimates from UN-Habitat.
The year before, China’s population shrank for the first time since 1960. In 2016, Beijing ended its strict “one-child policy,” imposed in the 1980s amid overpopulation fears, and began letting couples have three children in 2021. China faces an impending demographic decline, as its workforce ages and fertility rates decrease.Meanwhile, the United States is in the third position with an estimated population of 340 million.
What does the survey say
The annual United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report (SWOP) 2023 indicated that respondents in India held the opinion that the population in their country was “too large” and fertility rates “too high”. “There was no significant difference between the views of men and women in India on national fertility rates,” it said.
As part of the SWOP 2023, a UNFPA-commissioned public survey conducted by YouGov asked a representative sample of 1,007 in India about their views on population issues.
On identifying the population-related matters of greatest importance, 63 per cent Indians identified various economic issues as the top concerns when thinking about population change, followed by environmental and sexual and reproductive health and rights and human rights concerns.
“The Indian survey findings suggest that population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public,” said Andrea Wojnar, representative, UNFPA India and country director Bhutan on State of the World Population Report (SWOP) 2023.
In 2021, India, emphasised its opposition to coercion in family planning, and stated in several fora, including in Parliament, that it did not condone such policies, as they would prove to be “counter- productive.”
Wojnar said women and girls should be at the center of sexual and reproductive policies and programmes.
“Adopting a ‘life cycle’ approach, where girls and women are empowered at every stage of their lives, gender responsive work arrangements (for both men and women) that enable women to continue engagement in decent work opportunities in the long run, reducing barriers within the workplace, and improved access to finance will allow women and girls to pursue their life-time aspirations and harness untapped potential,” said Wojnar.
The survey asked a representative sample of 7,797 people across eight countries namely, India, Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, Japan, Nigeria and the United States for their views on population issues.
The report showed that a staggering 44 per cent of partnered women and girls in 68 reporting countries do not have the right to make informed decisions about their bodies when it comes to having sex, using contraception and seeking health care; and an estimated 257 million women worldwide have an unmet need for safe, reliable contraception.
It strongly recommended governments to institute policies with gender equality and rights at their heart, such as parental leave programmes, child tax credits, policies that promote gender equality in the workplace, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
These offer a proven formula that will reap economic dividends and lead to resilient societies able to thrive no matter how populations change, the report added.